WP Plugin: “Feed Comments Number”
So I made a WordPress plugin (by request) that adds an image to the bottom of each item in your RSS feed showing the number of comments on that post and links back to the comments section of that post. It’s a really un-creative name for the plugin, but that’s not really all that important. I want to say FeedBurner will add this type of thing if it can correctly parse your feed’s wfw:comments tag, but it’s never worked amazingly for me and not everyone wants / needs to use FeedBurner so I made this. I actually use it myself (and had done a similar type of thing in the past, but more manually). The reason you use an image to do this is because javascript isn’t allowed in RSS feeds, and many times feeds are cached so it would never update text in it unless the last-modified attribute was changed (which WordPress doesn’t do if there are new comments on it).
Right now it allows you to set the background color and the color of the text, as well as choose from two fonts that I included along with it. There’s also the option to upload your own .ttf font files to generate the text. There are plenty of places to find those, so that should allow for more customization (the above examples are with the Arial.ttf font). I’m planning on making it to where the text that’s shown when there are no comments is settable as well as the format of the way the comments are displayed.
Update (0.2): You can choose the text shown if there are no comments on that post in the plugin options as well as choose how to format the text to show the comment number on those that have comments. You can also optionally have the image link displayed in your feed excerpts as well.
the admin options page for the plugin
the current admin options for the plugin
There have been 68 downloads since I posted it to WordPress’s plugin directory, which is somewhere in the neighborhood of 66 more than I had expected considering I really just made this for a friend. So if anyone has any feedback or suggestions, you are more than welcome to leave a comment here or on the appropriate WordPress forum for the plugin.
Monday, December 1 8:34 am
Very nice! Thanks for doing this (at my request).
Friday, March 27 8:13 am
I needed something simple and nice like this but for me the Feed Excerpt check box does not remain checked. Any idea what the issue may be?
Thanks again for this.
Friday, March 27 11:11 am
Looking at the code, it seems I misspelled “excerpt” wrong in one part, which is probably the reason why it won’t accept the change (I’ve defaulted the option to have the image in the excerpt off).
I’ll fix it here in a bit and you should be able to get WordPress to update it by tomorrow, I hope.
Friday, March 27 11:22 am
Josh – thanks a lot! I’ll pick it up tomorrow. I wanted to ask you something. Looks like Wordpress.com blogs have a line in the feed that looks like this
Check out http://legacydaily.wordpress.com/feed/
I cannot figure out how to get the same support in Wordpress.org self hosted blog. Are you using the same stuff that they use?
Friday, March 27 7:46 pm
http://en.blog.wordpress.com/2007/12/18/enhanced-feeds-liven-up-your-feed/
That’s the article that talks about wordpress.com changes which I cannot figure out how to enable in a regular wordpress self-hosted blog. Any ideas?
Friday, March 27 7:55 pm
I don’t have a wordpress.com blog so I’m not entirely sure. It seems like there should be a corresponding plugin for it, but I can’t find it.
What all are you wanting? Because adding some extra links isn’t all that difficult.
Saturday, March 28 6:36 pm
Thanks Josh. I thought maybe the feature would be built-in but your plug-in works just as fine and for that I thank you!
19 Trackbacks/Pings Not Shown.
Sunday, November 30 3:39 am
[...] This plugin will display an image showing the number of comments on a post at the bottom of each feed item (RSS|Atom|etc) that links to the comments section of that post. You are able to choose which colors to use for the background of the image and the color of the text as well. The reason you would want to use an image instead of plain text is because RSS feeds are generally only updated if the build-date or modification-date components are changed, which does not happen if someone leaves a new comment. This will allow the comment number to update dynamically, regardless of when it’s been first viewed by a user. – Release page [...]
Sunday, November 30 3:31 pm
[...] Feed Comments Number [...]
Sunday, November 30 6:56 pm
[...] Feed Comments Number [...]
Sunday, November 30 11:49 pm
[...] Feed Comments Number [...]
Monday, December 1 1:33 pm
[...] Feed Comments Number [...]
Monday, December 1 4:04 pm
[...] Feed Comments Number [...]
Monday, December 1 10:01 pm
[...] Feed Comments Number [...]
Tuesday, December 2 12:00 am
[...] Feed Comments Number [...]
Monday, March 23 1:10 pm
[...] Feed Comments Number – Feed Comments Number will add an image to your posts in the feed that displays the number of comments the post has. The reason an image is preferable is that it will be updated dynamically in the feed faster than if it is text. If no comments have been left yet, it will display “Add a comment.” [...]
Monday, March 23 3:26 pm
[...] Feed Comments Number – Feed Comments Number will add an image to your posts in the feed that displays the number of comments the post has. The reason an image is preferable is that it will be updated dynamically in the feed faster than if it is text. If no comments have been left yet, it will display “Add a comment.” [...]
Monday, March 23 5:49 pm
[...] Feed Comments Number – Feed Comments Number will add an image to your posts in the feed that displays the number of comments the post has. The reason an image is preferable is that it will be updated dynamically in the feed faster than if it is text. If no comments have been left yet, it will display “Add a comment.” MediaRSS – With MediaRSS you can easily increase the types of media that you can embed in your posts for RSS consumption, such as videos. [...]
Monday, March 23 8:13 pm
[...] Feed Comments Number – Feed Comments Number will add an image to your posts in the feed that displays the number of comments the post has. The reason an image is preferable is that it will be updated dynamically in the feed faster than if it is text. If no comments have been left yet, it will display “Add a comment.” [...]
Tuesday, March 24 12:39 am
[...] Feed Comments Number – Feed Comments Number will add an image to your posts in the feed that displays the number of comments the post has. The reason an image is preferable is that it will be updated dynamically in the feed faster than if it is text. If no comments have been left yet, it will display “Add a comment.” [...]
Tuesday, March 24 5:09 am
[...] Feed Comments Number – добавляет в фид кнопку с отображением количества комментариев на данную запись, а также "Добавить комментарий". [...]
Tuesday, March 24 9:11 am
[...] Feed Comments Number – Feed Comments Number will add an image to your posts in the feed that displays the number of comments the post has. The reason an image is preferable is that it will be updated dynamically in the feed faster than if it is text. If no comments have been left yet, it will display “Add a comment.” [...]
Wednesday, March 25 3:23 am
[...] Feed Comments Number – добавляет в фид кнопку с отображением количества комментариев на данную запись, а также “Добавить комментарий”. [...]
Friday, March 27 10:48 am
[...] Feed Comments Number – Feed Comments Number will add an image to your posts in the feed that displays the number of comments the post has. The reason an image is preferable is that it will be updated dynamically in the feed faster than if it is text. If no comments have been left yet, it will display “Add a comment.” [...]
Sunday, July 26 4:26 pm
[...] Feed Comments Number will display the number of comments in a post as an image rather than text. This can be preferable to standard text as it dynamically updates faster in the feed. It simply displays “Add a comment”, if there is none. Media RSS, as the name suggests is all things media related to your RSS. In effect it means you can add various types of media in your RSS feed, like video for example. [...]
Saturday, August 15 8:33 pm
[...] Feed Comments Number – Feed Comments Number will add an image to your posts in the feed that displays the number of comments the post has. The reason an image is preferable is that it will be updated dynamically in the feed faster than if it is text. If no comments have been left yet, it will display “Add a comment.” [...]
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